Game in a nutshell: The afternoon featured a flurry of roster moves designed, in the words of GM Mike Rizzo, to put the best possible 25 men on the field to win tonight's game. But for eight innings, the result bore a striking resemblance to so many other nights over the last two months. The Nationals couldn't get anything going at the plate, and some sloppy defense wound up costing them and spoiling a great pitching performance. Jordan Zimmermann went eight innings and allowed zero earned runs, but the Mets brought two men home in the fifth via Adam LaRoche's throwing error. Those two runs should have proved enough because the Nationals did nothing against Mets right-hander Jeremy Hefner other than Ian Desmond's solo homer in the second. But then, it all finally came together in the bottom of the ninth against New York closer Bobby Parnell. Ryan Zimmerman, Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond all recorded base hits to jump-start the rally. Steve Lombardozzi then delivered the game-winning sacrifice fly, giving the Nationals much-needed, 3-2 victory.

Hitting highlight: Just when it looked like the Nationals were doomed to yet another woeful night at the plate, they stormed back in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth. Zimmerman led off with a double off the wall in right-center, barely beating RickRead more »

"Unless the batter is Espinosa and you know you have a guaranteed K. Then you strike him out and walk the next guy."Thats cruelty to animals! Laughing hard becuz Davey is smart enough that even he would then pinch hit to Gio! LOLOL

" You think the Shark is showing life. I think he was an automatic out tonight and would have gone down if they hadn't put him on."I'm pretty sure Terry Collins has seen the video of the Shark going Eutaw Street last week.

"I totally don't get why they Davey didn't pinch run for ALR. Ty-Mo was still on the bench and could have played 1B if the game went into extras."Another good point. We looked in the dugout and were screaming KOBERNUS.What was Davey thinking. This is what worries me about Davey. He fell asleep at the switch since he had the TylerMo still available and speedy Kobernus.Last week that costs the Nats a game.

Eric said… "Earlier on, I was not having a good feeling during that at bat. Lombo looked a bit overpowered." Looks like I owe you a beer Wonk (unless comments in previous threads count ;)!Finally! My row in NIDO has been empty all year (I had lots coming last year, but they were "virtual" beers at the time )So, what's the protocol? Do you enter the "1" or do I? (I have the spreadsheet open right now, I'll be glad to! )

Walking a batter to load the bases and set up the force at home is the only move that makes sense there. Unless the batter is Espinosa and you know you have a guaranteed K. Then you strike him out and walk the next guy.Exactly my point! It depends on your chances of getting that batter out. Don't throw out the numbers, embrace them and use them. Because they tell you that if you can get that first out, your chances of getting out of the inning go way up. 99 out of 100 Nats fans will tell you your chances of striking out the Shark, or getting him to produce an unproductive out in that situation, are much better than getting Lombo to do the same.Once you get the Shark out, walking Lombo to set up the inning ending DP is a good move according to the numbers, though perhaps not as good as you might think.

Ihaven't felt this pumped up after a game in a while.Now I better understand — this is the first time this season that the Nats, after being behind after 6 innings, won the came.(Yes, I knew we hadn't had any comebacks, but even from the 6th inning? Yowza)

Section 222 said…Just reading through the comments here. Ghost, you're dead wrong on the IBB to Bernadina. It might be baseball 101, but it's not baseball by the numbers. Check out this table. The chances of scoring a run go down just slightly when you go from 2nd and 3rd with none out to bases loaded with none out (86.1% to 85.6%). But the chances of scoring go down a lot if you get to 2nd and 3rd with 1 out (67.4%). The Shark had already struck out twice tonight. The move there was to pitch to him and get him out. The Mets gave us two chances to win the game with a sac fly by walking him.June 04, 2013 11:18 PMI agree with you, 222. I was afraid they were going to pitch to the shark.

Not directed at any particular commenter but yes, please, re. the attributions. And while I'm at it, a "no" on lengthy quoted passages, with or without attribution. A link works just fine in that case, thanks, and the author/publisher will thank you for bringing the readers. :-)Section 222 said… Info on Desi's comments seems to have come from tweets by Comak and Kolko. DavidP, you've quoted tweets quite a bit today. Good info, but you need to attribute it so people can check it out and know where it's coming from. June 04, 2013 11:22 PM